Colorado County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Colorado County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Colorado County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Colorado County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Colorado County — the short answer
Colorado County, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 314 days between hard freezes, across 615K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~314
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 615K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Colorado County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Colorado County's 314-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Colorado County
Across a year, Colorado County accumulates about 7,125 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,301 more than the middle Texas county — ahead of 211 of Texas’s 254 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 338 hours below 45°F, 757 fewer than the Texas middle of 1,095. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Colorado County
Across Colorado County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Telf, Straber, and Tremona are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–6.5, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
28%
Hydric soils
3%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Colorado County
The USDA soil survey maps 71% of Colorado County as moderately well drained — but another 28% drains differently: 14% well drained, 12% somewhat poorly drained.
Telf is the most extensive named soil at 10% of mapped acres, then Straber (10%) and Tremona (8%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Colorado County
Each reading below is measured for Colorado County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Colorado County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Colorado County runs about pH 5.3–6.5, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredColorado County runs about 314 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredColorado County sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Colorado County is in
Colorado County spans 3 EPA Level III ecoregions — Western Gulf Coastal Plain (50%), East Central Texas Plains (34%) and Texas Blackland Prairies (16%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Colorado County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Colorado County's own USDA zone 9a and its own 314-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile.
Is it too late to plant in Colorado County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Colorado County
- monarch butterfly3 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Colorado County
USGS estimates 51,310 lb of Glyphosate on Colorado County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (26,771 lb) and Atrazine (12,187 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Colorado County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Colorado County — 181 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Colorado County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Colorado County
Closest first, across Colorado County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALTAIR DISPOSAL SERVICES LLC - LANDFILLBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- KOA CAMPGROUNDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- WEIMAR RADIO RELAY STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- BECKERS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- MR BS FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- ALLEYTON STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- KUTACH COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- NADA GARAGE & SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- WALTER MEYERS LIQUORUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- ROBERT R WELLS JR AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- JOHN BARTEN TRUCKING YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- HANKS TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Colorado County's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Colorado County.
Total Sites
181
across Colorado County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Colorado County
Severity Distribution
across Colorado County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Colorado County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 148 sites across Colorado County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Colorado County
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Colorado County average
Your land is one point inside Colorado County
Everything above resolves to Colorado County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 615K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at county scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better county average.
Your Lot vs the Colorado County Average
Colorado County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Colorado County
- ●One soil character for all of Colorado County
- ●Frost dates read at Colorado County's scale: Jan 29 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Colorado County's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Colorado County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Colorado County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Colorado County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Colorado County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Colorado County average
How we know this about Colorado County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Colorado County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Colorado County
When does frost risk typically end in Colorado County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Colorado County typically lands around Jan 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Feb 19.
How long is the growing season in Colorado County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Colorado County sees about 314 frost-free days — roughly Jan 29 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 19 to Nov 25, about 279 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Colorado County?
The federal record around Colorado County is a meaningful one — 181 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (148), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.4 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
Everything above is measured at Colorado County's scale — its 9a band and its 314-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Colorado County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Texas's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Colorado County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Colorado County's own scale — its own ~314-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 181 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Colorado County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Colorado County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~314-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Colorado CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 181 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 1.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Colorado County's boundary and the 614,586 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~314-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 3 ecoregions Colorado County spans, Western Gulf Coastal Plain the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Colorado County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Colorado County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Colorado County — the ~314 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Colorado County's 614,586 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 181 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Colorado Countyread your own land →